LACK of regulation has made public transport in Karachi chaotic and messy, resulting in immense problems for the millions of commuters.The transport department does not care if the public transportbuses arerunningontheir authorisedroutes.There are dozens of routes of buses, minibuses and coaches that have been practically closed, but on paper these routes are fully operational.

The government should have cancelled the route permits of those transporters whoare not interested in running their vehicles on these routes and invite other transporters to obtain these routes.

The private transporters can get more than one route permits, though they do not have enough vehicles available to run on these routes. Thus, they run buses on profitable routes and ignore other routes.

The route issuing authorities should link route permits with specific vehicles, so that minibuses may be run on authorised routes. The name of the route should be painted on the front, rear and the sides of the vehicle. Another grave fleecing of commuters is that the public transport runs on cheap CNG but charges fare on the basis of the use of costly diesel. Also tickets are not given to commuters.

Muhammad Saad Karachi